A question mark hangs over the legality of hemp seeds in Australia. Photo: Supplied

Elissa McCallum

They are climbing the superfood sales charts elsewhere and claims of their health benefits are spreading, but in Australia hemp seeds remain under a cloud.

It is one of the few countries in the world where a question mark hangs over their legality. Despite no evidence that consumers can get high from the cannabis plant derivative, there are bans in place.

Raw hemp-seed chocolate fudge protein balls. Photo: Supplied

A Food Standards Australia New Zealand investigation concluded that “hemp does not have any psychoactive properties”. It said it didn’t identify any safety concerns about consumption and that hemp seeds were a nutritious food containing sizeable amounts of protein, polyunsaturated fats and dietary fibre.

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Yet a Melbourne restaurant that regularly serves dishes containing hemp seeds could be pursued by the Health Department if its identity was disclosed.

As cannabis is a prohibited substance under the Food Act, it is illegal to sell hemp seeds, or hemp seed oil, as food. The fine is $40,000 for an individual and $200,000 for a corporation. A Health Department spokesman said it would follow up a complaint if one were made and that there are no exemptions.

But a restaurateur who serves hemp smoothies and hemp seed chocolate fudge said she was unaware she was committing an offence. She said she relied on information from her hemp seed supplier.

Confusion about the law stems in part from its wording. While it is not permitted to sell hemp seeds as food, it is legal to sell them as something else. This is how outlets other than restaurants tiptoe around the rules.

Packaged hemp seeds are readily available in shops, with trade occurring on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” basis.

Retailers promote and sell them as a facial scrub ingredient, for instance, while well aware of customers’ unspoken intentions to sprinkle them on salads and cereals.

This raises a question: is it legal to eat them if you have a few left over from the facial scrub? Inquiries suggest the bans relate to the sale of hemp seeds, not the ownership. Food Standards Australia New Zealand says it is legal to possess hemp seeds as food.

A ministerial review of the law was due to conclude last week, but is now expected to go on until later in the year. The last review, in 2002, rejected overturning the ban partly because it could send a confused message to consumers about the safety of cannabis and could complicate law enforcement drug testing.

26 comments

Go the seeds!!!!!!

Commenter

Lesm

Location

Balmain

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 7:23AM

Yet it is perfectly legal to sell poppy seeds and nutmeg, both of which can get you high... And are readily available in your local supermarket.

Commenter

Paul

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 7:37AM

Well let's hope the current bunch of politicians have the common sense and integrity to do the right thing. Given that this is a very nutritional food source that has NO THC or other psychoactive substances in it then the fun police should have nothing logical to complain about. We should be encouraging the hemp industry here for lots of reasons and not continuing the blanket prohibition that was applied when U.S. corporations went after cannabis back in the thirties. It was a bad law then and it is still bad law now. Luckily the hemp seed that we can buy at the health food stores has a very handy recipe for face cream on the pack.

And for the believers out there, even the Bible weighs in on the subject:

"Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth."

Commenter

Cynic

Location

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 7:52AM

Yes, this is another ridiculous out of touch law in this country. The other western countries that our government so strongly identifies with have no problems with people eating healthy hemp seeds, (apart from strangely normally progressive NZ) yet we have some archaic idea here that hemp=drugs which clearly is not true. The other thing that really gets me is that there are aisle after aisle of junk foods legally available in supermarkets that definitely aren't doing your body any favours yet a clean healthy product that is a good source of protein and omega 3s isn't. The rumour I heard was that the Police are against legalisation because if you eat hemp it "could" affect the result of a roadside drug swab test. A lady in Canberra who ate hemp seeds in her muesli was wrongly sent to court for testing positive to cannabis but of course the judge seeing the evidence threw it out straight away. All I can say is I certainly won't be stopping adding this nutritious seed to my diet anytime soon....

Commenter

Ben

Location

Campbell

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 8:04AM

The very fact that we are labeling a PLANT as ILLEGAL is ridiculous. HEMP has been used for many centuries for various purposes including rope, cloth, building fibre, medicine, pain relief, ointment, appetite enhancer, paper and yes people get high on it...PEOPLE ALSO GET DRUNK everyday with disastrous circumstances. We smoke tobacco! God forbid we eat a seed...

Commenter

MIles

Location

Sydney

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 8:57AM

This is just another case of how far behind Australian and it attuide are; as while living in London and watching River Cottage. I came across a hemp oil Pesto with cheese; http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/brown-bread-hemp-oil-and-parsley-pesto-recipe But due othe laws in this country, I can't make it. It time people step out of the 1950's and into 2014.

Commenter

Goatee77

Location

Sydney

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 9:15AM

No such thing as a Superfood.

Commenter

Activated

Location

Almond

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 9:35AM

If I hear the word "superfood" again, I could possibly go insane.

Commenter

Jb

Location

Glebe

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 9:43AM

I'll send the truck around.

Commenter

Andrew

Date and time

July 08, 2014, 10:13AM

There's a new superfood which will cure that insanity.At $250 a bite you couldn't afford NOT to buy it!